Dennis Harrison, Author at Jacksonville Area Legal Aid, Inc.

New Freed to Run Challenge event in downtown Jacksonville to support Jacksonville Area Legal Aid’s Shelter for Elders endowment

New Freed to Run Challenge event in downtown Jacksonville to support Jacksonville Area Legal Aid’s Shelter for Elders endowment

Building on the success of Freed to Run, Jacksonville Area Legal Aid and Gunster Shareholder Mike Freed are launching a new initiative to create a Shelter for Elders endowment that will safeguard and strengthen JALA’s housing-related legal assistance for indigent seniors. “With Freed to Run, we created permanent legal aid funding to serve Northeast Florida children whose health issues are further complicated by their civil legal needs,” Freed said. “Now we are going to do the same for our elders who are faced with housing insecurity in their golden years.” Along with the new endowment comes a new event format. While Freed to Run was a six-marathon series from the Florida Supreme Court in Tallahassee to the Duval County Courthouse, the Freed to Run Challenge will take place on the streets surrounding the courthouse over just two days, Friday, Nov. 17, to Saturday, Nov. 18. Individual participants and relay teams will raise funds for the endowment through peer-to-peer fundraising based on a challenge to complete half-mile laps around the Duval County Courthouse in a period of either 12 or 24 hours. The distance covered by each individual or team will be measured by counting the number of laps they complete around the courthouse at any pace they choose. Participants do not need to be runners.

Dennis Harrison2023-11-25T11:30:26-05:00August 18th, 2023|Fair Housing, Freed To Run, Tangled Title|

‘FREE’ HUD Homeownership House Party

‘FREE’ HUD Homeownership House Party

You're invited! FREE Homeownership 'House Party' Saturday, August 26th 9am-5pm Learn how you can achieve your dreams of owning a home!! REGISTER HERE - https://www.eventbrite.com/e/free-hud-homeownership-house-party-tickets-687448967367?aff=oddtdtcreator Date and time Saturday, August 26 · 9am - 5pm EDT Location Edward Waters University 1859 Kings Road (EWU Gymnasium) Jacksonville, FL 32209 The U.S. Dept. of Housing and Urban Development along with the City of Jacksonville, Jacksonville Housing Counseling Agencies and Housing Industry Partners is hosting a FREE Homeownership 'House Party' Saturday, August 26, 2023, from 9am-5pm on the campus of Edward Waters University (Gymnasium)

Dennis Harrison2024-01-04T11:14:49-05:00August 18th, 2023|Fair Housing, News|

Veterans Legal Services Unit helps reservist navigate her divorce

Veterans Legal Services Unit helps reservist navigate her divorce

Julie Barrett called Jacksonville Area Legal Aid for help with her divorce after hearing that it had a program that offered veterans free civil legal services. A former active duty servicemember, she had made the choice to stay home with her two pre-school-aged children and enter the Reserves so that her husband could continue his active-duty military career. “I followed him through several duty stations,” said Barrett, not her real name. “And my doing that for his career put me behind in mine.” Then, the marriage unraveled, and she found herself starting over. “My main priority was the children, ensuring my kids were still maintained. And thinking about the visitation,” said Barrett, adding that it was complicated by her ex-husband’s impending deployment. After what she called a “speedy turnaround,” Jacalyn Crecelius of JALA’s Veterans Legal Services Unit took Barrett’s case, aided by paralegal Aylmar Thompson.

Dennis Harrison2023-08-16T18:42:38-04:00August 16th, 2023|Client Stories, Family Law, Veterans Services|

Mayor Deegan, Jacksonville City Council look for solutions to affordable housing crisis

Mayor Deegan, Jacksonville City Council look for solutions to affordable housing crisis

After Mayor Donna Deegan and a gaggle of reporters had gone, April Sizemore stood in her cramped apartment that still smelled of mold and suffered all the problems that had caused her to speak out in the first place: the roaches, the rats, the holes in the wall, the water leaks. Barely able to pay the $800 monthly rent, she grimaced at the water flowing from the bathtub tab that a malfunctioning faucet wouldn’t turn off. To Sizemore, it was the sound of money draining from her household finances because she’ll end up paying for the wasted water on her utility bill. “We can’t live like this, and no, I can’t afford anywhere else or otherwise I’d be gone,” Sizemore said. “But as a single mother of two children, I just can’t leave like that.”

Dennis Harrison2024-01-04T11:15:46-05:00August 1st, 2023|Fair Housing, News|

Mary Kelli Palka

Mary Kelli Palka

Mary Kelli Palka is director of strategic communications for the University of North Florida. She served as executive editor of The Florida Times-Union from 2017 to 2022, when she retired from journalism after nearly 30 years. The first woman and first Jacksonville native to lead the Times-Union, she spent nearly two decades at the paper, which she joined in 2003 as a news reporter. She went on to serve as investigations editor and managing editor before assuming the paper’s top management role. Before leaving journalism, Palka served as Gannett’s market leader for Jacksonville and deputy regional editor for its North Florida papers, overseeing newsrooms in Daytona Beach, Gainesville, St. Augustine, Ocala and Leesburg, as well as Jacksonville. Under her leadership, the Times-Union took on public corruption and explored important issues including racial inequality and juvenile justice while also covering nonprofits, education, the military, local businesses, high school sports, golf, Jaguars and other professional teams. Palka’s leadership also extended to serving as president of The Florida Society of News Editors. She was recognized as a Girl Scouts of Gateway Council’s Women of Distinction honoree in 2018, as GateHouse Media’s 2017 Editor of the Year, and as the 2015 recipient of the William S. Morris III Dedication Award from the Morris Publishing Group.

Dennis Harrison2024-01-04T11:16:32-05:00July 25th, 2023|Equal Justice Awards, News|

Mike Freed

Mike Freed

Gunster shareholder Mike Freed is a trial lawyer with a wealth of experience in the courtroom and arbitrations, administrative proceedings and other forms of dispute resolution. Board certified in business litigation, his practice spans a wide range of substantive legal disciplines and specialized industries, including corporate governance, education, health care, hospitality, labor and employment, construction, logistics, transportation and receiverships. Freed is also a philanthropist whose giving goes well beyond writing checks. As the founder of Freed To Run, Freed established a six-marathon series that raised $2.25 million to endow a JALA program called the Northeast Florida Medical Legal Partnership that provides civil legal services to hundreds of indigent pediatric patients a year. To achieve permanent funding for this important program, Freed not only ran 36 marathons himself, but also engaged donors and relay teams from virtually every sector of the community to contribute to both the fundraising and awareness. While that initial fundraising goal has been met, Freed is not stopping. He is now working with JALA to establish a powerful new endowment that will safeguard and strengthen JALA’s housing-related legal assistance for indigent seniors. Known as Shelter for Elders, this initiative will be funded through a new event format called the Freed to Run Challenge, which involves walks or runs over a period of 12 or 24 hours. Individuals and relay teams compete to see who can complete the most laps around the Duval County Courthouse during their chosen time frame.

Dennis Harrison2024-01-04T11:17:08-05:00July 25th, 2023|Children's Health, Endowment, Equal Justice Awards, News|

Carl Hiaasen

Carl Hiaasen

A Florida native, Carl Hiaasen has been called "America's finest satirical novelist" by The London Observer. He is known for his irreverent humor and the colorful characters that fill his bestselling adult novels and award-winning books for young readers. His satirical humor also infuses his speaking engagements, which offer audiences wickedly funny and fiercely pointed tales about Florida, as well as incisive commentary on environmental issues, modern culture, and corruption. From 1985 until 2021, Hiaasen wrote a column for The Miami Herald, covering everything from local issues like polluted rivers, the criminal justice system, and animal welfare, to national stories like the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, the Trayvon Martin case, Bernie Madoff’s trial, and Florida’s presidential election woes. His sharp observations and eye-opening reporting have earned him three Pulitzer Prize nominations. Hiaasen turned to writing novels in the 1980s, publishing his first solo novel, Tourist Season, in 1986. Among his novels for adults are 11 national bestsellers: Strip Tease, Stormy Weather, Lucky You, Sick Puppy, Basket Case, Skinny Dip, Nature Girl, Star Island, Bad Monkey, Razor Girl and Squeeze Me. Strip Tease was turned into a major motion picture starring Demi Moore and directed by Andrew Bergman. Squeeze Me, published in 2020, is largely set in Palm Beach, including at the “Winter White House” of a U.S. president with a most unnatural coiffure and a penchant for tanning beds.

Dennis Harrison2024-01-04T11:17:52-05:00July 25th, 2023|Equal Justice Awards, News|

Florida novelist Carl Hiaasen to headline Jacksonville Area Legal Aid event honoring Mike Freed and Mary Kelli Palka

Florida novelist Carl Hiaasen to headline Jacksonville Area Legal Aid event honoring Mike Freed and Mary Kelli Palka

JACKSONVILLE, Fla., Aug. 8, 2023 – Novelist and former Miami Herald columnist Carl Hiaasen will deliver the keynote address at Jacksonville Area Legal Aid’s 21st Equal Justice Awards Sept. 20 at the Marriott Jacksonville Downtown. The event is back after a four-year hiatus that began with the COVID-19 pandemic. A Florida native, Hiaasen has been called "America's finest satirical novelist" by The London Observer. He is known for his irreverent humor and the colorful characters that fill his bestselling adult novels and award-winning books for young readers. His satirical humor also infuses his speaking engagements, which offer audiences wickedly funny and fiercely pointed tales about Florida, as well as incisive commentary on environmental issues, modern culture, and corruption. From 1985 until 2021, Hiaasen wrote a column for The Miami Herald, covering everything from local issues like polluted rivers, the criminal justice system, and animal welfare, to national stories like the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, the Trayvon Martin case, Bernie Madoff’s trial, and Florida’s presidential election woes. His sharp observations and eye-opening reporting have earned him three Pulitzer Prize nominations.

Dennis Harrison2024-01-04T11:18:34-05:00July 24th, 2023|Equal Justice Awards|

JALA protects worker’s rights under the Americans with Disabilities Act

JALA protects worker’s rights under the Americans with Disabilities Act

“Bobby Jones,” who has epilepsy, was working part-time as a warehouse sorter on an assembly line, when he had an epileptic seizure three weeks into his employment. The incident prompted him to disclose his disability to his supervisor, who acknowledged that the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) statute required that Bobby be provided with a reasonable accommodation if needed. Bobby requested an accommodation for his disability, and his supervisor agreed that he could take a short break from his job duties once he felt that the work environment was triggering a seizure. No more than a month later, Bobby approached this same supervisor with a complaint that he did not get paid for work performed the previous week.

Dennis Harrison2024-01-04T11:19:17-05:00July 20th, 2023|Client Stories|

Lohman Property Management Co. fees $650K class action settlement

Lohman Property Management Co. fees $650K class action settlement

A $650,000 settlement has been reached with Lohman Property Management over claims the landlords did not communicate claims for security deposits to their tenants and charged fees that were not part of the contracts the company had with renters. The settlement includes anyone in Florida who entered into a lease agreement for apartments at Eagle Gardens of Jacksonville, Arlington Eagle, Eagle Court, Eagle Landing of Orlando, Eagle Point of Daytona, Eagle Pointe I, Eagle Pointe II, Eagle Ridge, Eagle Summit, Jacksonville Village Apartments, Orlando on the Lake Apartments and Orlando Sky and had any portion of their security deposit retained after they moved out.

Dennis Harrison2024-01-04T11:19:52-05:00July 20th, 2023|Fair Housing, News|

Dennis.Harrison@jaxlegalaid.org

About Dennis Harrison